SACKED captain Magnus Bradbury gave his Edinburgh team-mates the perfect gift on his return to action when he crashed over the line well past the 80-minute mark to claim a scoring bonus point for his team.

“He has been quiet, got his head down and worked hard,” said Richard Cockerill of the player who lost the captaincy after a late-night, drink-related fall left him with a head injury. “I thought you saw that when he got on the field, he wanted to get his hands on the ball, he wanted to carry hard.

“I am delighted he has put what has happened behind him and is back on the field doing what he does best.

He has got his team an extra point, which is exactly what he needed to do after the last four weeks.

“He is a big, physical man. We are creating some competition within the group, we did not have to bring him back into the team. Luke Crosbie has been going really well and when you have Jamie Ritchie there and can bring him off to bring Magnus on, it says a lot about the young guys. Nobody is guaranteed his spot.”

With both sides missing so many players because of international commitments, it was inevitably going to be a slow-burner while the two sides adjusted to playing without many of their key men.

Despite that, Edinburgh came through the test, and though they left it late to claim the bonus point, there was no hiding Cockerill’s overall delight with the changes he has seen in the team.

“I was very pleased with the second half. I thought that even in the first half, once we got into our rhythm, we were playing some good stuff. We have been playing some decent rugby in the last four weeks – Zebre not so much but after that we had a look at ourselves and how we wanted to play and are starting to get that growth,” he said.

“I was pleased with the perform-ance, we are getting better, and I am delighted with the five points, that is a big extra point for us. I’m delighted with performances over the last four weeks but we have a long, long way to go.”

It had been the Ospreys who settled first, winning a fortunate penalty when Tom Brown was a microsecond early tacking his opposite number. Twice they went for the touchline but were held in the maul, and they squandered a four-to-two overlap but in the end the continuous pressure paid off with prop Dmitri Arhip crashing over.

The two fly-halves, Sam Davies for the visitors and Jason Tovey for the home side, exchanged penalties before Edinburgh really started to get into the game, setting up camp in the Welsh 22 and waiting for something to go their way.

Almost inevitably it was Blair Kinghorn who supplied the magic. His off-load out of the tackle sent Brown racing towards the line. When the ball was recycled, he was there just inside the touchline to take a basketball-style, over-the-top off-load from Cornell du Preez, to go over.

With Tovey converting, they were level and two more penalties from the same trusty left boot when the Ospreys were down a man – Brendon Leonard, the scrum-half in the sin-bin for a high tackle on flanker Crosbie – put the Scots ahead at the break.

It certainly made for a more comfortable half-time talk, which worked a treat when Edinburgh produced a try of vintage skill and excitement to increase their lead on their return. Centres Phil Burleigh and James Johnstone sparked it with a breakout from their own half, half a dozen of their team-mates carried it on until Kinghorn produced the killer half break, off-loaded to Johnstone, who had scrum-half Nathan Fowles on his shoulder, to finish it off.

Suddenly, the confidence started to flow in to Edinburgh, though it was no easy task breaking the determined Ospreys defence. One move went through 36 phases before a player coming back from a position suspiciously close to off-side intercepted.

It was not enough to keep their line intact, though after all that build-up, the try, when it came, could not have been simpler – Tovey simply selling a dummy and sauntering over.

That swung the momentum again. The Ospreys started to win more ball but struggled to get into the home 22, never mind over the goal-line as the ferocious Edinburgh defence knocked them backwards. Eventually the Ospreys’ stamina broke, handling Edinburgh one final chance to get that all-important fourth try. It looked as though they had blown it when a line-out maul was held but somehow they got the ball back, went through the phases again and Bradbury did the rest.

Scorers - Edinburgh: Try: Kinghorn, Fowles, Tovey, Bradbury. Cons: Tovey (4). Pens: Tovey (3)

Ospreys: Try: Arhip. Con: Davies. Pen: Davies.

Edinburgh: B Kinghorn; D Fife, J Johnstone (C Dean, 63), P Bureligh, T Brown (G Bryce, 38); J Tovey, N Fowles (S Hidalgo-Clyne, 56); M Rizzo (R Sutherland, 63), N Cochrane (C Fenton, 58), S Berghan (M McCallum, 66), F McKenzie (c) (L Carmichael, 63), G Gilchrist (F McKenzie, 78), L Crosbie, J Ritchie (M Bradbury, 63), C du Preez.

Ospreys: D Evans; D Howells, J Hook, A Beck (K Fonotia, 66), T Habberfield (L Price, 71); S Davies, B Leonard (sin bin: 31-41, R Morgan-Williams, 56); P James (C) (G Thomas, 52), S Baldwin (S Parry, 67), D Arhip (M Fia, 52), L Ashley (R Thornton, 67), B Davies, O Cracknell, G Mercer, R McCusker (J King, 45).

Referee: A Brace (Ireland)

Attendance: 3,793